Liquid Spirit began with the idea of exploring human relationships through the four elements of earth, wind, fire, and water.  The students engaged with the four elements through observation, ritual, and visual art.  After those direct experiences with the elements, my teaching partner, Candrice Jones, facilitated students in writing prompts.  Candrice then took that text and repurposed it into a script.  The script became a loose, expressionistic narrative that fluidly moved between the personification of the four elements and the first-person stories of our students. I knew I wanted to challenge myself and the students technically through the incorporation of shadow puppetry and film in addition to costuming, music, and movement. To achieve this, each student took on both a performance role and a technical project.  Resident composer, Stefan Cwik, created original compositions for each of the four elements to underscore our production.  Below, you see photos of the fruits of our labor.  I am so proud of our dancers who didn't believe they could dance, our tireless costumers who worked in the "AGS sweatshop," and all the other self-initiators who created the visual spectacles for this show.  This was a great group of students, and I am lucky to have worked with them. 

Above "Wind" taunts "Water" until "Water" comes down to the stage in a celebration dance.

Below the expressionism of the elements' stories evolves into the realities of our students' stories accented by shadow puppetry.

Below we used film to help create mood and tone.  In these moments, we explored human connection through a simultaneous dive in towater and passion from infatuation through obsession.

I returned to Texarkana for another professional development with elementary teachers.  The teachers were fun and engaging.  After working with the teachers, I modeled the drama-based instructional strategies in their elementary classrooms.